Unheard Voices

The other side…

Here is an alternate view by Zafar Sobhan
Ami bidrohi, I the rebel warrior
I have risen alone with my head held high

– Asian Dub Foundation

If there was any doubt as to what motivated the 13 Bangladeshi cricketers to sign with the ICL and whether they were justified in doing so, such doubt was removed by the draconian punishment handed down to them by the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Wednesday.

The ten year ban is totally disproportionate to any offence the players might have committed, and as one-time captain of the national team, Habibul Bashar, points out, this is the kind of action one would expect against someone involved in match fixing or some other kind of egregious practice, and that the players who have chosen to join the ICL have committed no crime that merits such punishment.

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We always felt it.  We always thought about it but never really entertained the idea for long.  But now the proof is in the pudding.

11 national cricketers prefer MORE MONEY than the honour of playing national cricket for Bangladesh.  While this is understandable for cricketers like Bashar who are past their prime.  But for cricketers like Aftab, Nafis etc, its a position of clearly choosing money over national interest.   They are perhaps counting on the fact that Bangladesh cricket team needs them badly and once the money comes to them to roost,  they will simple play a year of IPL and return to Dhaka and ask for clemency.  However, I was willing to give them a benefit of doubt thinking this was an economic decision for some who came mostly for poor family.  In that case, let’s call spade a spade and say it that they did it for money.  But no.

Here is the bone chilling outrageous bit about their decision.  After doing this for money, these non performers  have apparently blamed the system for their decision.  Take a look at the once thought of as potential skipper Shahriar Nafees’ statement:

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The whole country used to wait for this event throughout the year. Anticipation with sheer excitement and expectation gripped the nation for days. Since morning, the line in front of Dhaka stadium ticket counters looked like a sea of humanity. The annual football face-off between Mohammedan and Abahani, the two most popular football teams in Dhaka used to be the grandest ever super bowl for impoverished Bangladesh.I still vividly recall one such evening of excitement. It is possibly a match-up 30 years ago. Incidentally it was also the evening of Shab e Barat.  Saudi wahbism started flexing its muscle in Bangladesh from late seventies. Until then, Sufi influenced Milad Sharif, Shabe barat etc used to be quite a big thing in Bengali Muslim culture.Ashraful, Shahriyar, Aftabs are national sporting icons now a days. It was Nannu, Manju those days. Nannu was the captain of Abahani and his brother Manju was Mohammedans captain. I still recall being glued to BTV live telecast of the game. I still recall, under roaring applause, two brothers Nannu and Manju shaking hands and exchanging club flag. Then the classic football of Nannu, Manju, Gaffar, Kohinoor, Amalesh, Abul, Enayet etc. Every household didn’t have TV in the 70s. So each drawing room with a TV set was filled with whole neighborhood. It was fun. Thunderous cheers with every goal or missed goal, tea, biscuits coming from different households, women gossiping in the backrooms. The scenario was much more electrifying inside Dhaka stadium. As soon as the game started, a group of very excited football fans across a 30 feet high barbed wire fence separating East and West gallery, used to start throwing brickbats and verbal abuses to each other. This then inevitably would spread in the vicinity of the stadium.

Football legend Nannu died today. He was 59 and was suffering from cancer and kidney failure. I had to write something on our extinct national craze, football and one of its best artists, Monwar Hossain Nannu.